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Lawyer urging caution with wind leases

Paul Morden, Sarnia ObserverPetrolia lawyer Wallace Lang questioned the amount of money wind energy companies are offering farmers who lease them land to build turbines on. Lang told more than 200 people gathered Thursday evening at Lambton Centennial School near Petrolia that the wind leases he has read typically offer landowners $15,000 a year, per turbine.

He was invited to speak by Conservation of Rural Enniskillen (CORE), a citizens group that formed earlier this year to oppose plans by several companies to build wind farms in Enniskillen Township. “You really have to wonder if it’s a good bargain or not,” Lang said about the amount of money wind companies are offering landowners.“It seems to be kind of chump change, really.”

The agreements can run for decades and may include inflation clauses but the lease payments are taxable, he said. Lang told the crowd he believes more realistic compensation for landowners would be in the range of $50,000 to $100,000 a year for each turbine. He urged landowners to be cautious, saying wind companies are sophisticated organizations that know how to market the documents they use to sign up landowners. While they’re called option agreements, “it’s a final document,” Lang said. “Make sure you want to do it, before you sign it.” Read article

10 thoughts on “Lawyer urging caution with wind leases”

” “Township council recently voted to declare Enniskillen an unwilling host for wind turbines.
Mayor Kevin Marriott said he believes wind companies are getting the message that the provincial government has now decided communities will have a say in where energy projects are built
“It’s leaking down from the government that if municipalities aren’t a willing host, to try and leave them alone,” he said.
“I’m a lot more confident than I was five weeks ago.” ”

The few lines above are from the end of the article. Is he serious? Is he really that innocent? Even if our Wynne/Lose premier has hinted to the windies that she might eventually have to do something to save her government, that will just mean the wind companies will try to hit the Unwilling first before the rules change. Asking multi-national companies to play nice just isn’t a viable option.
What our silly premier doesn’t realize is that the wind companies don’t care about her any more than they care about us – as long as they get their contracts signed before she’s out of office. Then they can collect their money from Hudak. Makes no difference to them. And it won’t make any difference to us.

My lawyer advised me we will be going after the farmers for devaluation of my property with each turbine within eyesight. Since its their land and a legal lease document they land owners are mentioned.
It looks like I will have 3 of these $T#%!E things to look at

Let’s be completely honest….if there were no farmers willing to harbour these criminal theft machines on their property, there would be no crime. They are knowingly aiding and abetting, and should be treated as accomplices.

They are the landlord as they own the land which they leased to the IWT developers.
The developers are tenants of the landlord. If a tenant abandons the lease and does not remove items the tenant brought to the leased property in a reasonable time then property left by the tenant reverts to the landlord. Then the landlord may keep what the tenant left or dispose of said property.
Don’t know what the legal reasonable time is to keep tenant property under Ontario law. This aspect of the situation should be learned.
Too many farmers think IWT leases are just like leasing land to grow crops on. This is far more complicated than that situation is.

The idiot farmers in West Lincoln are excited, because the wind company told them, that when they are through with the turbines….the host farmers will get to “keep” them, for their own profitability. Wow….aren`t they lucky?????

Chevy, are you serious? Did they really say that? Is it in the lease? When the wind company is ‘finished’ with them it can only mean there is no more profit to be made. Do they still get to keep them if they catch on fire? hahahahahaha

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